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HOW TO PULL YOURSELF OUT OF A CAREER RUT
Fast Company: It’s human nature to feel overcome with doubt during periods of change. Sometimes an event in your personal life can derail positive momentum in your professional career. These disruptions have a tendency to propel you into a state of unrest and uncertainty, where the decisions you make in the moment might not be the best in the long term. ... An April 2015 study published in Psychological Science, found that measuring time in days instead of months, or months instead of years, makes future events seem closer. The study’s authors concluded people work harder toward reaching their goals when their perception of time has been altered. We tend to get ahead of ourselves in life.
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Braggers Gonna Brag, But It Usually Backfires
Live Science: People who brag may think it makes them look good, but it often backfires, new research suggests. Self-promoters may continue to brag because they fundamentally misjudge how other people perceive them, according to a study published online May 7 in the journal Psychological Science. "Most people realize that they experience emotions other than pure joy when they are on the receiving end of other people's self-promotion," said study co-author Irene Scopelliti, a behavioral scientist at the City University London in England.
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Children Who Speak Multiple Languages May Be More Empathetic
Science Magazine: A new study suggests that children who speak or hear multiple languages may be better at placing themselves in others’ shoes, Pacific Standard reports. The research, published in Psychological Science, describes how children who had at least some exposure to foreign languages better understood how to follow directions that required them to take the perspective of the speaker. That ability to see the world from someone else’s point of view could lead to more effective communication, the researchers say. Read the whole story: Science Magazine
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How to Get People to Pitch In
The New York Times: LAST month Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor of California, issued the drought-racked state’s first-ever mandatory water reductions. “As Californians, we must pull together and save water in every way possible,” he said. Conserving water requires large-scale cooperation, just like reducing carbon emissions or eradicating measles through vaccinations. When you water your garden less, take public transportation instead of your car or vaccinate your children, you’re taking on personal cost (an uglier garden, a slower commute, a grumpier child) for the benefit of society.
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Do Bilingual Homes Raise Better Communicators?
Futurity: Young children who hear more than one language spoken at home become better communicators, a new study finds. Effective communication requires the ability to take others’ perspectives. Researchers discovered that children from multilingual environments are better at interpreting a speaker’s meaning than children who are exposed only to their native tongue. The most novel finding is that the children don’t even have to be bilingual themselves—it’s the exposure to more than one language that is the key for building effective social communication skills. Read the whole story: Futurity
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The Simple Mind Trick That Will Boost Your Savings in No Time
TIME: Human nature being what it is, probably the best strategy to ensure you’ll sock money away and achieve long-term savings goals is to involve your fickle, easily distracted brain as little as possible. As renowned economist Richard Thaler explained in a recent Q&A with MONEY, it’s very difficult for humans to control our impulses, and therefore the wisest approach to saving is to remove it as a choice. Invariably in our lives, stuff comes up, and if it’s an option, we’ll find more pressing and seemingly good uses for money other than incrementally trying to hit goals that won’t be realities for decades.
